


Eucalyptus

by techieturnover



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Drabble, Gen, M/M, Miranda mention, Post-Canon, just a thomas and james rebuilding and being happy thang, past OT3 miranda/thomas/james
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/techieturnover/pseuds/techieturnover
Summary: Thomas had never seen Nassau. He had never seen the island that had promised and taken so much from them. When Thomas asks for things James has never, but especially now, been able to say no.
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53





	Eucalyptus

The first time James sets foot in Nassau he introduces himself as McGraw and he is wide eyed and hopeful at what he sees.

The second time, he is Flint. Cold, angry, and bleeding inside from a wound that will take ten years and an unthinkable reunion to close.

The third time, he is neither of those men, and both. He introduces himself haltingly as James Hamilton, to a man he’s never met and who doesn’t recognize him, before continuing past the town towards the interior of the island.

He hadn’t wanted to return. He had wanted with all of his being to leave Nassau and all the pain it caused him behind. But Thomas had never seen Nassau. He had never seen the island that had promised and taken so much from them. When Thomas asks for things James has never, but especially now, been able to say no. So they arrive in Nassau approximately four months after they escape from Oglethorpe’s plantation, two years after he is sent there, and five weeks after Thomas first asks to see it. 

James leaves him to explore the town - it’s safe now to do so with real commerce on the line and really, he is probably safer walking around without a ghost at his heel. Instead, James heads inland towards his own sort of ghost. 

When he arrives at the burnt out shell of Miranda’s house he is both thankful and angry that it seems no one has gone near it. The last charred skeleton of their rebellion, the stronghold of the pirate menace, the place he could never find peace no matter how hard he searched for it.

The fields Miranda had tended so diligently are overgrown, what is left of the fence toppled by time, the bones of the house burnt to little more than shingles and stone. He misses her at that moment more than he has in the last two years and for the first time in a long while he allows himself to cry for her. 

Hoofbeats announce the arrival of someone else. He knew it would be, but he is still more relieved than he knows he should be to see that it is Thomas. Thomas is the only other person who should be allowed to see this place, he decides. 

“Is this it?” 

James nods as Thomas comes to stand at his shoulder. He sees the other man taking it in and wonders what is going through his mind. 

When Thomas moves forward and starts methodically picking up debris on the ground, James is thrown off. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Seemed as good a place as any to start.”

“Start what?”

“Rebuilding.” 

He says it so simply, so matter of fact. As if he’s stating the sky is blue, or the ocean full of salt. 

“We’re not staying here,” James says, but it is more a question than a statement. Thomas pauses at that, meeting his eyes and reading him through. 

“Nassau doesn’t have to remember you as Flint. You were right, all those years ago. This could be a home for us. As far away from England as we’re ever likely to get. And this way we could be close to her.” 

I could be close to her, Is what he means.

There are a hundred reasons not to, and James knows them all. The likelihood he’ll be recognized. They’ll have to find work doing something in the town. They’re both supposed to be dead - not just to Nassau but to the world. They’ll have to rebuild the house with no money or funds to speak of, and neither of them skilled at the kind of carpentry needed on this scale. 

And yet, as Thomas goes back to his task, James can’t help but think this is the most at home he’s felt in as long as he can remember. Thomas has always had a way of making him believe the most improbable outcome is achievable and here, now, James knows he hasn’t learnt a goddamn thing in the last twelve years. He would still follow Thomas to the ends of the earth. Willingly, gladly, with a smile on his face go to his doom; deaf and dumb to the possibility that they could fail when faced with the alternative.

That they could live.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in like fifteen minutes instead of sleeping so there
> 
> the title is so because a bunch of different eucalyptus plants can only sprout after a fire has melted the resin around the seed coating and i thought that was a nice metaphor also i'm tired
> 
> comments feed my soul


End file.
